Interesting scenario that opens for the libertarian movement in Catalonia, have been supporting against the repression since the minute 0, have been in the mobilizations too, winning many supports and have presented their agenda.

Now to that agenda is added CCOO AND UGT in case the hands of the call and ANC to try to take the merits.

We see also that the groups with more weight and more organized of the Catalan libertarian movement have been coordinated for the first time all together with a joint declaration of intentions.

A great lesson for all the libertarian movement that looked suspiciously at the footsteps of our Catalan partners and a great lesson, which teaches us that out of the struggles, scorning them and criticizing them without acting, anarchism has nothing to do.

More than 40 unions and associations in Catalonia have called a region-wide strike for Tuesday, after a major police crackdown on a banned independence referendum.

In a statement on Sunday, UGT and CCOO, Spain’s biggest unions, the Catalan national assembly (ANC), a powerful pro-independence civil association, and 41 other organisations called for a large-scale strike in protest against “the grave violation of rights and freedoms” today.

The statement continued:

"We call all society, on employers’ organisations, business owners, unions, workers, self-employed workers, institutions and all the citizens of Catalonia to stop the ‘country’ on Tuesday, October 3."

If workers are unable to break free from bourgeois influence and strike out on an independent path based on a communist perspective then they will be tools for the Catalan bourgeoisie and then discarded after the bourgeois has won independence. The unions offer no way forward either what is needed is workers councils organisationally united.

This seems to be the first time that the radical unions have organized a general strike which the business unions are then tailing them on. Usually the business unions call a one-day strike and the radical unions try to intervene. All of the propaganda around the city, all of the meetings, all of the social media images etc. related to this strike have come from the radical unions. So it's going to be interesting to see how that plays out.

How does that play out? Uh, I think the fact that they've renamed the general strike a "civic stoppage" -supported by the chamber of commerce- might indicate who's been calling the shots all along and intends to go on doing so for the foreseeable future…

I just saw the Mossos de Esquadra (Catalan police) protecting the precinct of the Policía Nacional (State Police) in Via Laietana from demonstrators chanting "Out with the occupation forces!"…

So, my guess is that, in the main, inter-cop solidarity shall prevail, now that the Spanish state has done the Catalan bourgeoisie's dirty (and nation-building) work for it. Rajoy and Puigdemont need each other now more than ever, as each is the other's main justification.

Yeah, there was a one-day "general strike" in Czechoslovakia against the Stalinist regime in 1989. The people were told to strike by working "better than usual", i.e., the bakers would bake "better bread" etc. I don't mean to sound disparaging but with such a fetishized and mythicized thing as general strikes, what matters is always the content and implications for workers power, not the slogans or sentiments of "everyone united". I think that, paradoxically, a demobilizing general strike that is actually detrimental to workers is something that is very real.

How does that play out? Uh, I think the fact that they've renamed the general strike a "civic stoppage" -supported by the chamber of commerce- might indicate who's been calling the shots all along and intends to go on doing so for the foreseeable future…

For the working class, particularly after the positive social movements in Spain a few years ago, this "struggle" is taking place on poisoned ground; that of the citizen and a national unity movement. It's a fight between bourgeois factions for their place in the state. I agree with some of the posts above and particularly with Jura's point that the strike is demobilising and detrimental to the working class. Here;s a contribution from one Comunero on the ICC's discussion site:

"Hello, I'm writing from Spain and the social climate is right now totally poisoned by nationalism from either side, it's the main topic of conversation.
The occupations by the citizens (not only workers, but petit-bourgeoisie as well) of the places designated to vote don't have anything else than nationalism and democratism.
Workers have been again trapped, fooled and used as cannon fodder against the police of the Spanish State, which has charged in a brutal way.
I think, from my POV, that is important to understand that the Catalan bourgeoisie doesn't want independence. As a comrade I know pointed out, the Catalan bourgeoisie is pulling the rope for more competences, power and privileges to the Generalitat (and, thus, to them), and using the masses for that purpose. It's a dangerous game because they could end getting the opposite, but it's highly unlikely. The point I'm trying to make is that the bourgeoisie from Madrid and Barcelona aren't enemies but rivals. They are only enemies of the working class.
Now, the situation is tense but I think it's quite controlled and more of a show. All leftist unions (including the "radical" CNT) have called for a "general" strike in Catalonia tomorrow (each one with a slightly different pretext), a strike in which the autonomical police (Mossos d' Esquadra) are going to participate as well. Rajoy is menacing about using article 155 of the Constitution which would enable the central government to get direct control of Catalonia but, again, I think is very unlikely.
So, as a summary, this is bourgeois arm-wrestling in which the biceps is, sadly, the working class. Provocations and street performances are going to continue for a while and, after the central government and the Generalitat reach an agreement, are going to stop, leaving tens of thousands of poisoned and/or demoralized workers in Spain and maybe even some outside.
I'm personally hoping this ends as soon as possible, it's sickening, disgusting and sad. Where I live is full of Spanish flags, something that is unusual in Spain and used to be limited to the Corpus Christi day, and there are leftists everywhere handling what can be called printed shit".

This is a few days old and events are obviously moving quickly, but I translated an article from Solidaridad Obrera if anyone is interested. It's basically about the mood going into the referendum and the possibilities it opens up. At least in the opinion of Una Posició.

Hegemony is easy to understand. If you study the bases of the workers' movement that took place in Spain and the force that CNT had in the 30's are due to:
- Workers' culture had associated values and ethics as opposed to bourgeois. Today, on the contrary, the working culture has enough values and ethics of the culture of the consumption or of believing middle class.
To summarize, that the hegemonic culture was the syndicalist and the socialist / anarchist or today it is the capitalist.

That seems like a particularly worrying development, as it would mean risking workplace unity over disagreements on nationalism (in terms of whether workers decide to take part in the strike or not). Did CNT members vote on whether or not to strike? If so what was the result, and what was the specific question asked?
g

Probably a bit more concerning than that since in Catalonia in order to get any public sector and also most public facing jobs you need an advanced certificate in Catalan. Thus sadly nationalist sectarianism is already embedded in workplaces. Afterall if you are a Spanish migrant from say Murcia or another similarly less wealthy part of Spain you will not be able to apply for any of said jobs unless.you spend a year or two studying on an officially recognised Catalan course, assuming you have the funds or academic ability to do so.
Of course, a lot of the jobs we're talking about here are the ones more likely to be unionised. Anyways, sadly I would say nationalism has already divided ''workplace unity'' somewhat.

Some 2,000 people have concentrated this morning in front of the PP headquarters in Catalunya, whom they see as the "culprits" of the police action of 1-O.

The mobilization has been called by the CNT in the framework of the 'Stop the country' on Tuesday under the motto 'Guilty of labor reform, the militarization of the city and the misery of women workers.

Protesters have combined pro-independence demands in Catalonia and shouted 'We voted', along with proclamations of general strike and workers' rights.

The spokesmen of the CNT have read a statement in which they have defended the strike as a rejection of "labor reforms and the continued loss of rights for the working class added to the concern about the actions of the different repressive bodies of the State."

They have also defended the right to self-determination in Catalonia and have branded the PP of fascists for their labor policies and for "police violence" on Sunday.
No incidents

The mobilization has developed without incident for the moment, although anti-riots of the Mossos d'Esquadra make a cordon between the headquarters of the PP and the demonstrators from before the 10.00 hours, when the concentration had been summoned.

There are also dozens of firefighters, who have been hailed for their performances in recent days, and demonstrators have launched hundreds of ballots from the 1-O referendum.

Yeah, right.Let me put it another way: if Catalan workers hadas risen up against their own rulers and bourgeoisie, do you think people would be out on the street in the rest of Spain waving Spanish flags or would they be applauding and following their example?

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